Dani attended TARGETjobs Events IT's not just for the boys! last year and made some great life-long contacts!

Name: Danielle Walsh

University: Northumbria University

Degree Title:Ethical Hacking for Computer Security

Waking up on the day of the “IT’s not just for the boys” event left me feeling anxious and excited all at once! Grabbing a coffee amongst the busy London crowd, I approached Bloomberg HQ in London contemplating what other female geeks were like. Prior to this event, I never had the pleasure of knowing any other females with the same passion in technology as me.

My intentions for the event were not to get a graduate job or placement, as I had already secured a sponsorship with my placement company before I arrived.  My goal was to network with other female geeks! My wish was granted as I approached the buffet table and met Dagmara. Dagmara introduced herself as a mechanical engineer and I introduced myself as a software engineer studying “Ethical Hacking”. We immediately clicked and laughed about debugging problems - and what it’s like to be one of few girls studying male-dominated subjects.

Moving into the bright conference room, the day continued with meeting lots of incredible peers like Raluca who shared her love of web application programming - who now works for Microsoft (congratulations)! For me, the chance to meet Kathryn Parsons, founder of Decoded, was such an honour as she filled me with inspiration to share the love for coding and celebrating her success was unbelievable.

Although I did not wish for a job, the companies who attended showed a lot of interest and did pass out invites for assessment centres/interviews! I gained a lot of knowledge from the companies about how to be successful in interviews and skills companies like employees to have. I can only hope that I have been able to express how truly amazing the event was, from meeting wonderful women geeks, being inspired, eating great food and knowledge gaining from tremendous companies.

Long behold, Dagmara is now one my best friends and came to my city of studying (Newcastle) to do her placement. Since then we go travelling and work on coding projects together in our spare time. Looks like IT’s not just for the boys gave me a friend for life! Thank you for the opportunity!

IT's not just for the boys - Top tips on the day!

Name: Jennifer Allerton

University: University of Southampton

Course: Physics
Event: IT’s not just for the boys!

The IT’s not just for the boys! event is a celebration of women in technology and computing; a networking event with talks, panels and workshops. I found out about it from a friend who had been the previous year and recommended it, so I decided, what do I have to lose? Writing my application didn't exactly seem daunting when I started, because I thought about the reasons I wanted to go, and I imagined the day in my head, and as I wrote it, I gained more confidence in the idea that it would suit me.

• For me, the day was about the people I would meet. There were companies, and workshops, and questions and answers about working in computing and technology – plenty of information available to be soaked up. But I was interested most of all in the individuals, the women themselves. I have always undersold myself, put myself down and failed to see how clever I am. I suffer from anxiety and depression, and my self confidence has never been high when it comes to my worth and intelligence, but my confidence with people is good; I love to speak to people. The best part is they’re all real, they've all been in similar places, they all have their own experiences; they won’t judge you. Not for being nervous, or for asking a question, or for being you. So that brings me to my first and most important top tip for the day: Talk to people!

• My next top tip would be to plan as much as you can in advance. On the day, I caught a train and walked from the station. The event was at Bloomberg, in Finsbury Square. Google maps told me the way from the train station to the building, so I printed off a copy and took it in my bag. I worked out roughly how long the walk would take me, assuming I would not want to rush – it would only make you feel stressed to have walked as fast as humanly possible to the event to get there 5 minutes before the start. I always like to leave plenty of time. (In fact, I even stopped at Starbucks on the way! – such a consumer dummy). I then booked my train ticket accordingly for the right time.

• Final top tip: get plenty of sleep. Especially if, like I did, you have a trek to make in the morning, and are possibly also nervous, it will definitely help. My personal recommendation? Green tea, scented candles and meditation. And when you get home after the day is over, feeling super-pleased with yourself for getting really involved, listening, soaking it all up, talking to lots of people and building on your idea of what on Earth you want to do with your life, a cup of hot chocolate is definitely in order. 

Because what did I learn from the day? Appreciate yourself, and reward yourself. Because you rock. 

Studying IT? If this sounds like something you are interested in then why not apply now! Applications are open for our events in October and November! JUST CLICK HERE!